Betsy DeVos Vows to Help For-Profit Schools Defraud Students

Betsy DeVos Vows to Help For-Profit Schools Defraud Students

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, perhaps the most under-qualified official in an entire administration of under-qualified officials, just made some moves that will really hurt millions of college students trying to get a decent education.

On Wednesday, DeVos dismantled two major regulations designed to protect students at for-profit universities. DeVos said the laws weren’t accomplishing what they were intended to do and, “the result is a muddled process that’s unfair to students and schools, and puts taxpayers on the hook for significant costs.”

“It’s time to take a step back and make sure these rules achieve their purpose: helping harmed students. It’s time for a regulatory reset,” she continued.

Peter Mellado explains, “The two protections DeVos scrapped were the gainful employment rule, and the borrower defense to repayment rule.

The gainful employment rule sought to ensure that degree programs offered at for-profit universities actually made their graduates hirable in the field of their degree, and that the jobs they could reasonably expect to attain came with salaries that allowed them to pay back their student loans.

For-profit universities have lobbied against both rules since they were instituted, arguing that they constitute an undue burden on their industry. They also feel they aren’t designed to protect students at all, but were instead created by teachers unions and elements within traditional academia fearful that for-profit schools threatened their monopoly on higher education.”

This move, along with other decisions DeVos has made, will increase borrowing costs, and will expose students to more interest and penalties if they have trouble finding work after college and have trouble making loan payments.

The for-profit education system must be having a field day with this. We have a president that ran a fake, scam, for-profit business “university,” and his Education Secretary who has spent her life trying to defund public schools. These people don’t care about education. All they care about is the almighty dollar.